Coffee Juniper Duck

This is a dish I was responsible for during an eight course dinner at work the other night. It was course #4 of eight and consisted of: Coffee and juniper rubbed slow roasted duck breast, wild rice pilaf, wilted greens, and sour cherry compote. We served over fifty people. The coffee and juniper rub was something unique and new to me and I loved making and tasting the sour cherry compote. Other items on the menu included fresh oysters, lobster ravioli, local beef, asparagus, sorbet, rhubarb crumble, and ceviche.

Duck Roulade

Remember the Chicken Galantine I featured a few days ago? The pain-in-the-butt, tedious, time-consuming pate wrapped in paper-thin chicken skin? Well, this is it's cousin; Duck Roulade. Duck Roulade is essentially the same thing - a duck pate with an inlay or seared duck breast, rolled in duck skin that has been scraped until it is paper thin. The one main difference is that the duck roulade is roasted, whereas the chicken galantine is poached. 

The duck roulade is tied with butcher's twine to hold it together, rather than being wrapped in cheesecloth. It is then roasted in a pan containing mirepoix, herbs, and duck fat; and is periodically bated in the duck fat. This gives great color, flavor, and texture to the roulade, especially the skin, as it becomes crisp and noticeable in contrast to the skin of the galantine. So I much preferred this, and thought it was ALMOST worth all the work. Almost.

I found the duck easier to debone than the chicken, but that was possibly only because I had done a chicken the day before and they are very similar. However, the duck was much bloodier and gross. The duck meat was however, much more difficult to pull apart from the skin. It did not comes right off like the chicken, so it was tricky to pull the meat off without ripping the skin or leaving a lot of meat behind. The duck also needed much more scraping because the skin was thicker and fattier. 

Rotisserie Duck

Not too long ago, my father and brother came up with this great idea to try barbecuing a duck. Interesting enough. However, it did take much longer to cook than they had expected - much longer than a chicken. They used some type of rotisserie contraption but had trouble attaching the duck to it without having proper food safe string. The duck was basted in barbecue sauce. I personally did not try the duck myself, but I must admit it did smell quite good coming in the house. It seemed to be moist and tender and juicy, which makes sense as duck is quite a fatty meat. 

Note: duck takes awhile to cook this way so start early. I suppose some good accompaniments would be cooked vegetables, stuffing, or potatoes.